


Straight Shooter

by sparktastic



Series: Rungs of the Ladder [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Archery, Boredom, Flirting, M/M, too long for a drabble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-03
Updated: 2014-11-03
Packaged: 2018-02-23 22:00:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2557244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sparktastic/pseuds/sparktastic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bucky is left on his own for a minute and Clint is a bad influence.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Straight Shooter

Clint could tell the atmosphere in the facility was a little off, a little tense. The one guard behind the security desk had two colleagues lingering behind him, talking business in tones too low for Clint to hear as he crossed the lobby. It didn't bother him, SHIELD was so flighty these days that any potential problem would have everyone flying off the handle. 

He stepped out the front door and glanced around the parking lot, uncertain of where he left his car earlier, when he noticed. 

"Barnes!" Clint called, distracting Bucky from all the space he was staring into while fiddling a cigarette between his fingers. Bucky looked apprehensive as Clint approached but didn't run so that was encouraging. 

"Hi," Bucky said uncertainly, breath carrying smoke from his lips with the quiet word then out the cigarette in his mouth once more. 

Clint grinned, "Hey. Notice you've managed to peel Steve away from your side, I'm impressed," he said, checking around to make sure that Rogers hadn't hidden his muscle-bound self in the shadows somehow. 

It seemed like Bucky considered that for a second, he exhaled smoke again and glanced up at the unassuming building. "He had to talk to Agent," Bucky faltered, "Hill. Stuff I'm not allowed to know. So I have to stay where they can keep an eye on me." Clint looked round to follow Bucky's eye-line and saw a security camera craned round towards them, he turned back to Bucky to see his eyes had dropped to the floor. 

"Huh," Clint said eloquently and allowed himself to think for a second. Just a second though, let's not get nuts. "You want to do something?" 

Bucky met Clint's eyes and smirked. 

"No, I mean like... Just, hold on." Clint darted off across the parking lot without waiting for a response. He made it to his piece-of-shit car in record time to wrench the trunk open and grabbing from it the case with his compound bow and the ball-shaped field target he always left in there. 

Bucky had stayed where Clint had left him, eying him critically across the lot with cigarette hanging lazily from his mouth. The archer, mission in mind, locked the car with the remote over one shoulder and nodded wordlessly towards the empty grass area adjacent to the parking lot. Bucky frowned, shot a look at the security camera then back to Clint. The SHIELD agent shook his head and waved a hand dismissively – Clint was just as capable of looking after Bucky as Steve, why not? 

Reaching the grass verge, Clint set the bow case on the ground and slung the ball target to watch it settle about 30 yards away. 

Bucky stubbed his cigarette out in his left palm and flicked the butt away, from a safe distance he watched Clint retrieve the compact bow from the case, snapping it out to full extension. Then, in one fluid motion, the archer retrieved an arrow, stood, nocked it and let it fly at the target - nailing it in the center of a green surface marker. 

Clint turned and held to bow out to Bucky, who narrowed his eyes at it. 

"Dude, it's a bow, not a bomb. Give it a try," Clint said, wiggling the bow like he was trying to entice an animal. 

"I'm not supposed to handle weaponry." 

"You are such a stiff, take it!" Clint scoffed, shoving the bow at Bucky and giving him no choice in the matter. "I just want to see how you do." 

Bucky hummed to himself in thought, weighing the bow in his right hand then swapped it to his left, "You're a bad influence, Agent Barton." 

"You'll come to know just how true that is." Clint grinned and stepped back to allow the soldier to step up the plate, as it were. 

Bucky shot him a look then snatched up an arrow of his own and nocked it to the bowstring. Clint watched the hard focus in Bucky's eyes as he silently contemplated his shot for a good few seconds. Then he raised the bow with the steady metal hand and drew back, a beat of consideration then released. 

"Either you've used one of these before or that's some beginner's luck." Clint commended. It was a good hit, a clean shot into one of the smaller green target areas. 

"I guess I have. There was a bow in the weapons cache in DC." 

"Weapons cache?" 

"Yeah. Part of a Hydra outpost, base... whatever it was. I only had access to the armory. I could go and take what I needed whenever." Bucky hardly seemed to be listening to his own words, full attention on lining up another shot. Clint was happy to let him continue. 

"Does SHIELD know about that place?" Clint watched the arrow fly and strike on the edge of the marker, beside his own first shot. 

"No. I know they want intel from me but Steve won't let them push." 

Clint hesitated, "Is it okay if I tell them about it?" 

Bucky tore his attention from the third arrow and regarded Clint, "I guess so," he said hesitantly, "Just..." He looked away. 

"What?" 

"Tell them not to get rid of the bolt-action rifle with all the mods." 

"Oh yeah?" 

Bucky spun the arrow expertly round his fingers and looked a little sheepish for just a second, "I like that one." 

Clint smiled. The Winter Soldier likes things? Well, a thing. A gun. Still. There was Bucky Barnes there, somewhere. 

A throat was cleared behind the two of them and Bucky froze, Clint's bow and arrow fell from his hands and clattered onto the grass. Clint turned and scowled at the security guard with an equally hard look on his face, "Sergeant Barnes, consider this a warning concerning your leaving the premises without supervision," the guard said sternly.  
Clint's expression got increasingly sour, "Excuse me, I'm here with him!" Can't get no respect around here. 

"Agent Barton, you've been warned against using weapons in public." He had him there, Clint closed his mouth against further complaints. The security guy nodded back towards the SHIELD base, "Sergeant, if you'll return to the facility..." It wasn't a command, more an authoritative suggestion. 

Somehow, Bucky managed to get more tense when he turned his deer-in-the-headlights look back to the building and saw Steve stood outside the main doors, arms crossed and hesitant concern evident on his face, even from this distance. The name of Hawkeye was best deserved when Clint was able to ascertain just how mad people were at him  
from long range. 

Bucky's attention flickered chaotically between the security guy, Clint, the fallen archery gear and Steve. "Sorry," he managed and took off back the way he'd came. The security guard fixed Clint with a hard glare, which he reciprocated with twice the ferocity, before the jumped up little shit turned away and left Clint to gather his stuff.

**Author's Note:**

> So the praise on Your Left was really exciting so I thought I'd have another go! I like to see people enjoying something I've done but I have trouble thinking of things to write so if you want to fire a prompt at my [ Tumblr](http://rushingrullett.tumblr.com/ask), I might write a drabble on it! No promises though, I am still finding my feet after all.


End file.
